Primary education

Yesterday’s primary race in Washington, D.C., makes the new documentary “Waiting for Superman,” by the Academy Award-winning director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” all the more interesting. The movie is about the sad state of public education. One of the main interviewees in the movie, seen as a champion of the kids and foe of the unions, is take-no-prisoners D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee. Well, yesterday the man who appointed Rhee, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his primary bid to Councilman Vincent Gray, who has clashed with Rhee and supported the unions. Gray is almost guaranteed to be the next mayor of Washington, and if he is, it is unlikely Rhee will keep her job. If she leaves, what happens to all her reforms, documented glowingly in this new movie (which opens in LA and New York on September 24, and nationally on October 7)? This one is TBD.

Need to Know is a production of Creative News Group (CNG) in association with WNET. Marc Rosenwasser is Executive Producer. Need to Know is made possible by Bernard and Irene Schwartz, Mutual of America, Citi Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation, Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS.